If you’ve ever baked something for someone else, I think the results of a recent survey won’t be a surprise to you. Baking for others can help you as much, if not more, than the person you are baking for! It’s a great stress-reliever, plus a way to show thanks and appreciation.

Plus, who doesn’t love getting cookies?

I recently decided to try out a bunch of different oatmeal cookie varieties and pack them up and send them along with my two kiddos to daycare. The cookies were not for the kiddos, but for the teachers! After all, these teachers spend about 40 hours a week with my children. I want them to know that Betsy and I appreciate everything they do.

I love oatmeal cookies because they can take on many different textures. They can be crispy or soft. They can be simple or packed-full of add-ins.

I experimented with three different varieties of oatmeal cookies in my Oatmeal Cookie Care Package. I think I had a personal favorite out of the three, but all of them were good in their own way!

Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

5 from 1 vote
Author: Nick Evans
Servings: 18 cookies
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Oatmeal cookies packed with dried cherries and chocolate chips.

Equipment

Ingredients 

  • 1 cup unsalted butter
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 cups rolled oats
  • 1 cup dried cherries
  • 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream together butter with both kinds of sugar until it’s light and fluffy. Then mix in eggs, one at a time.
  • In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Slowly mix that into the creamed butter. Stir in rolled oats. Very last, fold in dried cherries and chocolate chips.
  • Making heaping tablespoon-sized cookies out of the dough and spread them out on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
  • Bake cookies at 375 degrees F. for 10-12 minutes, rotating the sheet pans once halfway through. The cookies are done when they are a light golden brown around the edges. It’s okay if they are soft in the center.
  • Remove cookies and let cool. Finish cooling on a wire rack. Store cookies in the fridge if storing longer than a day.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 335kcal | Carbohydrates: 46g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 48mg | Sodium: 205mg | Potassium: 127mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 26g | Vitamin A: 589IU | Calcium: 33mg | Iron: 2mg
Course: Desserts
Cuisine: American

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @crunchtimekitchen

Blueberry Lemon Oatmeal Cookies

5 from 1 vote
Author: Nick Evans
Servings: 18 cookies
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Classic oatmeal cookies with fresh blueberries and loads of lemon flavor.

Equipment

Ingredients 

  • 1 cup unsalted butter
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon lemon extract
  • 1 medium lemon, zest only
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 cups rolled oats
  • 6 ounces fresh blueberries

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream together butter with both kinds of sugar until it’s light and fluffy. Then mix in eggs, one at a time, followed by extract and lemon zest.
  • In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Slowly mix that into the creamed butter. Stir in rolled oats.
  • Very last, gently fold in blueberries, trying to keep them as whole as possible.
  • Making heaping tablespoon-sized cookies out of the dough and spread them out on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
  • Bake cookies at 375 degrees F. for 10-12 minutes, rotating the sheet pans once halfway through. The cookies are done when they are a light golden brown around the edges. It’s okay if they are soft in the center.
  • Remove cookies and let cool. Finish cooling on a wire rack. Store cookies in the fridge if storing longer than a day.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 263kcal | Carbohydrates: 37g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 48mg | Sodium: 203mg | Potassium: 86mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 20g | Vitamin A: 352IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 23mg | Iron: 1mg
Course: Desserts
Cuisine: American

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @crunchtimekitchen

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cookies

5 from 1 vote
Author: Nick Evans
Servings: 18 cookies
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Oatmeal cookies with loads of creamy peanut butter and ripe banana.

Equipment

Ingredients 

  • ¾ cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1 very ripe banana
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 cups rolled oats,

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream together peanut butter with mashed banana and both kinds of sugar until it’s a smooth mixture. Then mix in eggs, one at a time.
  • In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Slowly mix that into the creamed butter. Stir in rolled oats.
  • Making heaping tablespoon-sized cookies out of the dough and spread them out on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
  • Bake cookies at 375 degrees F. for 10-12 minutes, rotating the sheet pans once halfway through. The cookies are done when they are a light golden brown around the edges. It’s okay if they are soft in the center.
  • Remove cookies and let cool. Optionally, use a fork to press crosshatches into the cookies in the traditional peanut butter cookie fashion. Finish cooling on a wire rack. Store cookies in the fridge if storing longer than a day.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 221kcal | Carbohydrates: 36g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.002g | Cholesterol: 18mg | Sodium: 183mg | Potassium: 155mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 17g | Vitamin A: 31IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 25mg | Iron: 1mg
Course: Desserts
Cuisine: American

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @crunchtimekitchen

Oatmeal Cookies Three Ways

I tried out two different varieties of Bob’s Red Mill Rolled Oats for these cookies: Their Old Fashioned oats and their Extra Thick oats. I was particularly intrigued by the texture of the extra thick, but I’ll note that you can use either for any of these recipes!

Basic Oatmeal Cookies.
Basics

All of the recipes basically start the same by creaming together butter (or peanut butter) with sugar. Once that is light and creamy you add in the eggs and extract (in the lemon recipe).

Then you slowly add in the flour and dry stuff, and the oats at the end.

Oatmeal Cookies
Dough biz.

Any add-ins go in very last!

Oatmeal Cookies
Chocolate Cherry add-in

The peanut butter banana oatmeal cookies look the most plain, but man did they smell good. Even the dough smelled good!

Oatmeal COokies
PB Mix.

The cookies I was most worried about was the blueberry lemon cookies because I used fresh blueberries. I worried they would end up too wet. These are the cookies I used the extra thick oats on which I thought might soak up a bit more blueberry juice.

Blueberry Lemon oatmeal cookies
Blueberry Lemon

They turned out the softest of the three cookies, but held together fine and the flavors were awesome. They had a great lemon flavor and then little pockets of fresh blueberries!

Oatmeal Cookies
Done cookie.

The peanut butter banana ones puffed up the most and I used a fork to make little cross-hatches in them after they baked like a normal PB cookie. Optional, but kind of neat and helps them flatten a bit.

PB cookies
Tried to make hashmarks.

I packed up a bunch of each kind of cookie in a carrying case and sent it off to school with labels for each cookie!

It came back empty the exact same day so I’m pretty sure they were well received!

Oatmeal Cookies.
The spread.

If you know someone who is having a rough week, maybe take a few minutes and make them a batch of delicious cookies! You’d be surprised at how a little gesture like that can improve their mood, and also your mood!

Oatmeal Cookies Three Ways: Basic oatmeal cookies with three new twists on them. If you're an oatmeal cookie fan, you'll want to try these! Versions include cherry chocolate, blueberry lemon, and peanut butter banana. | macheesmo.com

If I’m showing my personal favorite out of these three versions, I think the cherry chocolate won it for me. Very classic oatmeal cookie texture but I liked the dried cherries over the traditional raisins.

The blueberry lemon was really unique also though and I thought it had fantastic flavor.

I’d be happy to get any of these oatmeal cookies delivered to me!

Oatmeal Cookies Three Ways: Basic oatmeal cookies with three new twists on them. If you're an oatmeal cookie fan, you'll want to try these! Versions include cherry chocolate, blueberry lemon, and peanut butter banana. | macheesmo.com